Folk art
, Mexico, 1900-1913]] Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic.West, Shearer (general editor), The Bullfinch Guide to Art History, page 440, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, United Kingdom, 1996. ISBN 0-8212-2137-X As a phenomenon that can chronicle a move towards civilization yet rapidly diminish with modernity, industrialization, or outside influence, the nature of folk art is specific to its particular culture. The varied geographical and temporal prevalence and diversity of folk art make it difficult to describe as a whole, though some patterns have been demonstrated. Antique folk art ' in Islamabad, Pakistan.]] Antique folk art is distinguished from traditional art in that while it is collected today based mostly on its artistic merit; it was never intended as a category to be art for art’s sake. Examples include: weathervanes, old store signs and carved figures, itinerant portraits, carousel horses, fire buckets, painted game boards, cast iron doorstops and many other similar lines of highly collectible "whimsical" antiques. Characteristics Characteristically folk art is not influenced by movements in academic or fine art circles, and, in many cases, folk art excludes works executed by professional artists and sold as "high art" or "fine art" to the society's art patrons. On the other hand, many 18th and 19th century American folk art painters made their living by their work, including itinerant portrait painters, some of whom produced large bodies of work.Bishop, Robert and Weissman, Judith Reiter. ''The Knopf Collectors' Guides to American Antiques: Folk Art. Knopf. 1983 Other terms that overlap with folk art are naïve art, Arts Primitive, Pop art, outsider art, traditional art, Tribal art, "self-taught" art and even "working class" art. As one might expect, all these terms have different connotations; but they are all at times used interchangeably with the term folk art, for which a satisfactory definition has proven hard to come by. Folk art expresses cultural identity by conveying shared community values and aesthetics. It encompasses a range of utilitarian and decorative media, including cloth, wood, paper, clay, metal and more. If traditional materials are inaccessible, new materials are often substituted, resulting in contemporary expressions of traditional folk art forms. Folk art reflects traditional art forms of diverse community groups — ethnic, tribal, religious, occupational, geographical, age- or gender-based — who identify with each other and society at large. Folk artists traditionally learn skills and techniques through apprenticeships in informal community settings, though they may also be formally educated. See also * Alebrije * African folk art * American Folk Art Museum * Chinese folk art * Ex-voto * Latin American Retablos * Madhubani painting * Mingei (Japanese folk art movement) * Naïve art * Nakshi Kantha * Old media * Outsider art * Pakistani vehicle art * Tribal art * Warli painting * Whirligig * Yakshagana * Kuthiyottam References External links * Folk art at the Open Directory Project * Compton Verney has the largest collection of British folk art in Great Britain, acquired for the gallery in 1993 to prevent it being split up and sold abroad * Folk Figures: A Survey of Norwegian and Norwegian-American Artifacts * Contemporary Folk Artists from the Southern United States An adjudicated listing of artists (basketmakers, potters, quilters, storytellers, blues and bluegrass artists) compiled by the Southern Arts Federation * Artcyclopedia information. * The Finest Folk Art collection